Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness PSP
New Features FAQ
by Sethan
==== Introduction =============================================================
This FAQ is about the new features included in the PSP version of "Disgaea:
Afternoon of Darkness". I do not own the DS version, so I cannot include any
data about that one. I do own the first game on the Playstation 2, and played
through the main story, and very little of the extra content. However, I've
nearly beaten all the content so far on the "Afternoon of Darkness" release,
and I haven't seen a FAQ about the differences. So here we go!
For those who don't know what the game is, I'll sum it up in a nutshell.
There are strategy role-playing games where you build up characters and take
them into scenarios in order to fight and progress along a story. The Disgaea
twists the story and heaps a lot of extra play material into each game,
increasing as the series progresses. Most games allow you to go to level 99;
Disgaea caps out at 9999. And furthermore, you can improve on weapons and
equipment by entering the "Item World", fighting through randomly-generated
floors to increase the strength of your weapon. And there are a ton of classes
to play with. I'll explain later on, when we reach that part. The tutorials
are well written to explain everything, but they will only introduce you to
the concepts. Playing around with them is crucial to understanding how they
all interlock to improve your army of loyal peons.
==== Stage Changes ============================================================
Some stages have been altered in order to balance differently from the
Playstation version. Unfortunately I failed to keep an accurate accounting of
these, but primarily you will discover when you revisit stages there will be
different things from before. Of special note, each boss stage will change
when you finish it. Unique monsters or enemies will be replaced by tough, but
more commonplace, enemies.
One instance I can verify is in the Blair Forest, after Sardia is defeated,
there will be two dragons waiting for you. In the PS2 version, you instead
would find a lesser-powered Knight with similar equipment. There are other,
minor changes which have been made. This is an example of what I meant when I
said there were some alterations.
==== Hyperdrive ===============================================================
Among the items most valued in the first Disgaea release was the Hyperdrive.
You would find them if you fought to the bottom of a very high rank item and
confronted the "Item God 2". They would always possess some special items,
and among those was the Hyperdrive. It was an item which would allow the
equipping character to travel anywhere on the map (except exit gates in the
Item World). And once you got one, it was simple enough to go into its Item
World and grab another.
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness changes that. There is only one I am aware of,
and that's if you descend to the bottom of a rank 40 item without exiting,
kill the Item God 2 at the bottom, and have the empty space for it. You will
be awarded the Hyperdrive only once; if you don't have empty room in your Item
Bag, it will go to the Warehouse. If you have a full Warehouse, it will appear
in the shop ONE TIME ONLY. Leave the shop accidentally and it is gone
forever.
So far as I have looked, there is no second Hyperdrive.
==== Tainted Staff and Foresight ==============================================
At the Rosenqueen stores, patronage is appreciated and you will be rewarded
as you shop by rarer items being made available. Your Customer Rank increases
to 12 along a progress bar in the menu as you buy items; if you keep up with
your army's equipment then you will find better equipment becoming available.
If you pass the right resolutions at the Dark Assembly, you can improve your
Product Rank as well, which stacks on top of your Customer Rank but cannot
exceed it. Product Rank can also only reach 12. You can also add specific
types of items for sale (Belts, Shoes, and Glasses) with the proper
resolutions.
As you proceed, two items will undoubtedly come up: the Tainted Staff and the
Foresight (a pair of glasses). These items are glitched up in this re-release;
they will possess incredibly powerful resident Specialists for their rank, and
when you enter there will only be Laharl Clones inhabiting them with
practically any item rank 1 to 39 in their inventory. And they'll be
extraordinarily high level, with very strong statistics.
This can make for some amusing and easy item searches, so long as you have a
Rogue capable of stealing them. And as your fighting force grows stronger,
they can also be great for training your levels.
There are downsides. The Tainted Staff model is broken so it looks like you
have nearly empty hands, and it cannot be used to attack. It also will
always appear with one Alchemist (adds Poison to your blow) in any weapon.
And the Foresight has a -100 Jump statistic; equipping one effectively
prevents movement. Equipping two nullifies the effect by some sort of odd
numerical error. NIS America was apparently aware of these glitches, but I
don't know the full story about them. I do know they make the game much
simpler when you can grab them and survive a trip.
Foresights will contain the following specialists: Teacher (INT), Coach
(SPD), Marksman (HIT), Master (SP), Manager, Statistician, Broker,
Armsmaster. The four Bonus Specialists will be able to be moved, but are not
subdued.
Tainted Staffs will always have an Alchemist, but will also contain the
following: Teacher (INT), Coach (SPD), Master (SP), Physician (RES) Manager,
Statistician, Broker, Armsmaster. Again, the four Bonus Specialists will be
able to be moved, but are not subdued.
A word of advice; Managers, Brokers, Armsmasters, and Statisticians have a
capped limit to how high they are effective. Statisticians, Managers, and
Brokers only are effective to 300, while Armsmasters are effective to 1900.
Each of these will show up in the glitched item at 10000 and higher; if you
combine them on an item you will immediately reduce them to the capped
effective level but they become unmovable (since they were never subdued in
the first place)! Exercise caution when doing this.
==== Demonhall Mirror =========================================================
At the end of the Cave of Ordeals in the main game, you will find the
Demonhall Mirror. Here, powerful demons will appear to test your strength.
Each time, Geo Symbols will offer up a special challenge. The enemies you
face will change each time, all of them being unique and well-armed. You can
steal some rather good equipment from them if you have a good enough Rogue.
Round 1: The Shark King. A Serpent-type monster, this is not that different
than a high level of its family. The real problem is the Geo Effect on the
floor: Ally Damage 80%. At level 550, you might have some trouble if you come
direct from the Cave of Ordeals.
Round 2: Gargo, Zommie, Goleck, Dratti, Manty, and Ghoss. They're all here, the
layabouts from the castle; and they're no pushovers. The area has a Recovery
20% sitting on the floor so you can run into trouble if you're not doing
heavy damage. They also have inflated health for their levels, so be aware of
this!
Round 3: True Overlord. Level 750 Great Wyrm type of enemy, which you may
recall from the Blair Forest chapter. The arena Geo Effects are Warp, Enemy
Boost x6, and No Lifting. Again, the health is inflated and you are going
to be fighting uphill with the Enemy Boost. Warp is going to make it hard to
truly handle a coordinated attack.
Round 4: Serra Winguard, the High Priest. This solo fight is hampered by the
fact her level is 1200 and the entire arena is blanketed in a Clone effect.
FOUR Clone effects, meaning your problems grow quite bad if you leave someone
out. If you can't take out the Geo Symbol fast then you will be facing a
losing battle. She carries a Galactic Staff, which is a Rank 39 staff; it's
worth trying to get a Legend version if you are patient enough.
Round 5: Vesuvius the Fallen Angel. Another solo fight, but this Angel
carries a massively rare rank 40 axe, the Apocalypse. You should go through
trouble to snatch this item immediately. The Geo Effects in the area are
ATK +100 and Ally Damage 40%. This should not be in consideration, just use
the boost for extra damage.
Round 6: Adell. Summoned forth from the mirror is Adell, protagonist of
Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories. He's equipped with a Monster-Type weapon instead
of his usual Fist but don't let that fool you. He's murder at close quarters
and the area is blanketed in Attack +3/No Lifting.
Round 7: Adell & Rozalin. Together, from Disgaea 2, these two are a pain.
Adell's eaten his vitamins and is stronger this time, and Rozalin can hit at
range with her normal attack. Her special attacks are also quite devastating if
you don't watch out. She will be using a Nemesis so be sure to prepare for
stealing it.
After this battle, you will find the Demonhall Mirror is out of new and unique
fights, and will dispense 8 Ravanas and an Argus of considerable level on the
platform. They will have an EXP+100 Geo Effect, making this an ideal place to
come train your elite fighting force.
==== The Badass Overlord ======================================================
After beating up most everyone in the game, there's one last effort waiting
for you. Pass the "Stronger Enemies" bill until it maxes out, and the
Dimensional Guide will tell you of a disturbance in the Stellar Graveyard. Go
to the new Primordial Soup to find a book which will be familiar to those who
played Makai Kingdom; Zetta the Sacred Tome and Badass Overlord. He's no joke,
being level 9999 and having an entourage of demons to support him, all at his
level. He'll have Nemesis and an Arcadia, which you will want to grab.
The area is divided into two zones by No Entry/No Lifting panels, and the Blue
area you start on has Ally Damage 80% set down. The four symbols for it are not
too far away, but will switch it to Green with Enemy Boost x3. There are five
Tao Tiehs between you and the Geo Symbols, and at the Symbols are a Daemon and
an Unholy King. On the other side, there are four Bahamuts, and a Behemoth. The
two Geo Symbols controlling the No Entry/No Lifting will turn the barrier
Green, as well.
Zetta will zip around on three Warp/No Lifting tiles (Yellow) which will also
turn Green when you hit them. The strategy I used was to clear the near area
out and smack Zetta as he came in range with Dimension Slash. Beware, if you
are within 5 squares, he will Zetta Beam you; it will hit three-width after
it strikes, so be aware.
After Zetta is out of the way, the trick to finishing the other side is much
less hectic if you have strong characters. You may want to abuse the Green Geo
Panel abundance to pump the Bonus Gauge, as it's set to a very high 65 rank
this time.
Sadly, there's no title change or similar on beating him. All you'll have is
another crack at an Arcadia and Nemesis, which are in limited supply.
==== Etna Mode ================================================================
There's a secret chamber Etna uses to hide her diary from anyone who would like
to read it. Finding it is the first trick; there are two switches hidden in the
castle somewhere, and you need to trigger both before you can find the hidden
room. You won't get hints as to where the switches are, but if you look around
long enough you will find them. The room is, actually, pointed out by a Prinny
complaining about a draft.
Each chapter, be sure to visit thee room and read the diary entries. It not
only enriches the plot of the game, but at the final chapter you will be given
a Testament for free. Once you get this, you've unlocked Etna Mode on the
New Game +.
You can also unlock it via a code given to you in Etna's secret chamber when in
Etna Mode already. For the NA release, you press Triangle, Square, Circle
Triangle, Square, Circle, X. For the Japanese release, it's Triangle, Square
X, Triangle, Square, X, Circle; their 'choice' button is the reverse of the NA
control scheme.
In Etna Mode, you lose access to Laharl and a good deal other optional
characters. Specifically: Gordon, Jennifer, Thursday, Maderas, Kurtis, Priere,
and Majorly. Anything you had on those characters will be saved for the next
playthrough of the main game. Etna will not get access to the Demonhall Mirror
levels, and her chapter progression is much different. The story takes a wild
turn . . . I refuse to spoil it, however.
If you enter the code from the start, the mode is harder but generally not much
more difficult to work with than the main game. If you go in with a New Game+,
however, you will notice the levels are actually continuing to grow higher as
if it was an expansion to the main story. You will also find the bonus bosses
behind the Seals (Priere, Majorly, Baal) have all been set to 9999 and will
prove a considerable challenge.
==== Music Store ==============================================================
A new addition to the castle courtyard is a skull who will tell you to search
out the songs of the Netherworld. As you hear the tracks in the game for each
event or level, they will unlock for you to purchase for a price. Most of the
BGM tracks will be cheaply bought, but the songs with vocal components will be
10,000,000,000 HL to purchase. This is a scary sum, but once you start working
through rank 40 items in pursuit of the top equipment and chewing through the
bonus bosses . . . the money ceases to be an issue.
Here is a track list of what you can purchase, and a guide towards when they
should be available. Note, most of the tracks will become available as you
actually play forward. The three tracks in quotations are ones I have not
personally unlocked yet, so I cannot verify the names.
BGM 01 Dark Whisper (instrumental)
BGM 02 Dark Whisper
BGM 03 Welcome to the Dark Castle
BGM 04 Flowerbed
BGM 05 Angel of Sorrow
BGM 06 Angel Smile
BGM 07 Dear Friends
BGM 08 Rise of the Demon
BGM 09 Elegant Demons (Item World Theme)
BGM 10 Ode to Laharl (instrumental)
BGM 11 Beam to the Future
BGM 12 Go Little Girl!
BGM 13 Footsteps
BGM 14 Dark Adonis
BGM 15 The Anthem of Braves
BGM 16 March of the Planet Earth
BGM 17 Eternal Fear (Defeat Baal)
BGM 18 Great and Wild
BGM 19 RosenQueen Netherworld Branch
BGM 20 AKUMA Drops
BGM 21 Fancy Ball
BGM 22 Hystelic Kingdom
BGM 23 Running Fire
BGM 24 Witch Hunting
BGM 25 Underworld
BGM 26 Battle of Eight Beat
BGM 27 Galaxy Wars
BGM 28 Elegant Dance (Mid-Boss Fight Theme)
BGM 28 Planet X (Final Chapter Battle Theme)
BGM 30 Disgaea (Final Battle Theme)
BGM 31 Fearless Whisper
BGM 32 Dark Statue
BGM 33 How About a Castle? (Etna Mode Theme)
SONG 01 The Flower of Happiness (Normal Ending)
SONG 02 Ode to Laharl (Earth Conquest Ending)
SONG 03 "Etna Boogie" (Etna Victory, Chapter 5)
SONG 04 "Tragic Marionette" (Flonne Ending, Chapter 3)
SONG 05 What a Beautiful Life of Mine (Mid-Boss Victory)
SONG 06 Red Moon (Episode 8 Epilogue)
SONG 07 My Comrade (Episode 13 Epilogue)
SONG 08 "Nightmare Girl" (Beauty Queen Etna Ending, Etna Mode)
==== Records Keeper ===========================================================
Here's a fun time waster, tucked away in a corner near the Tutorial and Dark
Assembly. At the "Save Shop" you will be able to view records of your game and
see how you're progressing. There are three parts to his menu; Collection
Record, Dark Record, and Collection Book. I'll talk about each in turn.
The Collection Book records your classes as you unlock them, listing their
root title and whether they are Human or Monster. There's a short lore passage
with each one, just to entertain you. The use of this is mostly to keep track
of what you've seen or not seen yet. Please note, unique units which join up
and have a name not in the six-rank hierarchy of each class family will not
unlock the entry. There are 17 different Human class families, and 20
different Monster families; each one has 6 ranks to it, for a total of 221
actual 'classes'. (There is no Rank 6 Prinny; it seems reserved for an ally
which is never on the battlefield but has a sprite.)
The Dark Record holds more information for you. Play time, number of New Game+,
friendly kills (a very important number to track for those seeking all the
different endings), and various other tidbits to track for your amusement. The
third page will list the accomplishments you have unlocked through the game,
specifically the bonus bosses you have killed.
These follow:
Item General killed
Item King killed
Item God killed
Item God 2 killed
Prinny God killed
Astro Carter killed
Zetta killed
Adell killed
Rozalin killed
Priere killed
Majorly killed
Baal killed
Prinny Baal killed
The first entry, the Collection Record, will list all the items you have picked
up as you played. You'll note a "NEW" tag on each item as you see it, and once
you own it the name and rarity is marked down in the Record. Every item has
three rarities (almost every item); Common, Rare, and Legend. This is noted in
the "Rarity Number", which goes to 255. Legend items have a 0 to 7 Rarity, Rare
items have 8 to 31, and Common items are the rest. All rank 40 items are Legend
items, and many unique items which can be found will be automatically a Legend.
I'm not going to reproduce the full tables here; that would really be a lot of
text to scroll through. As for acquiring each item, a good rule of thumb is
to go to the bottom of a Legend item and the Item God will be holding the item
one rank higher than what you are in. A well-circulated trick is to use a Mr.
Gency's Exit to leave on floor 99 and then descend to floor 100 and seeing if
the item held is a Legend; if not, quit and reload.
This is also the only method to earn a rank 40 item, save for the few special
items which are limited in number. An Apocalypse can be stolen in Demonhall
Mirror, from a Fallen Angel, and the Prinny Costume can always be obtained
from Prinny Baal; almost endlessly.
==== Ad Hoc Multiplayer =======================================================
One of the other new things you can do after completing Chapter 1 is to enter
Ad Hoc Multiplayer. A few things are enabled for this, Battling and Selling.
This is a short-range multiplayer, which means you will need to be in the same
area as the person you wish to play. I'm sure there are third-party programs
which can get around this, but I have no knowledge of them. (I also would not
like to be told about them constantly; there is a GameFAQs forum, please use
that for multiplayer concerns.)
Selling is a simple matter of putting the items you want to sell into your
Shopping Bag and anyone can purchase them from you. You will not get money
from this, nor will you actually lose the item. As well, they will not get any
Specialists in the weapon; they will only get a copy of the item at the same
rarity value and level. You are prohibited from selling rank 40 or above
items, and you cannot purchase an item of the same rarity as one you already
have. Example? You want to purchase a Longinus with Rarity 4, to finish up
a character you have the perfect kit for except for a spear. Once you have it
you cannot buy another one of that rarity so long as you actually own that
Rarity 4 Longinus. If you want to buy one with Rarity 3, then you can still
do that.
Battling is a more complex affair, and you are pitted against a select squad
from the other person. Eight characters only, and you will not gain experience
from the battle, nor will you be allowed items. A varied toolbox of rules can
be added for additional challenges or balances, and you will want to carefully
look them over.
Note: I haven't fooled around yet with the Ad Hoc Multiplayer aspects, I only
know what little I gleaned from other sources. Such as the manual, and some
friends who filled in gaps. In future versions, this may be expanded on, or
someone can write up their own multiplayer FAQ file.
==== Closing and Contact ======================================================
Thank you for bearing with me for so long, as I know this is a far from
complete guide. However, this will cover more in-depth than the forum topics, I
think, and be a slight bit more accessible. Mostly, I just want this FAQ to be
of some use to those reading it.
If you have corrections or additional info, you can email me at
simon_kereminde@hotmail.com.
If you feel like writing your own FAQ on something I only glossed over, do not
copy and paste my information please! I may not have slaved for months over a
keyboard for this, but I think I deserve consideration. Do not repost this
FAQ without my consent (and crediting me), which will be given if you just ask
nicely.
The current version is 1.0, being the first draft of the document.